Alvin j



A. II. MUNSON.

BALL ORNAMENT FOR LIGHTNING RODS.

(No Model.)

No. 343,332. Paten ed June 8, 1886.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALVIN J. MUNSON, .OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

BALL ORNAMENT FOR LIGHTNING-RODS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 343,332, dated June 8,1886.

Application filed January 29, 1886. Serial No. 190,246. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALVIN J. MUNsoN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana,have invented new and useful Improvements in Ball Ornaments forLightning- Rods, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to means for affixing ornamental glass balls tolightning rods, weather-vanes, and the like; and the object of myimprovement is to so construct the ornament as to render it easy ofapplication to the lightning-rod or vane-rod, and to make it capable ofvarious ornamentation not now to be had. I do this by making the glassball of two cast hemispheres, and I apply the ornament and secure it aswill be hereinafter described.

In the accompanying drawings,Figure 1 represents an elevation of alightning-rod with an ornamental glass ball of my invention attached;Fig. 2, a horizontal section taken through the ball and rod; Fig. 3, avertical longitudinal section; Fig. 4, a perspective of one of thehemispheres.

Two hemispheres, A and B, are cast,of glass, with threaded necks O O foreach hemisphere at top and bottom. Each hemisphere is cast with adiameter-face, D, and a central vertical half-tube, E, which projects attop and bottom to form the threaded necks above mentioned. In the faceof each hemisphere is a hole, a, through which solutions of propermaterial for the purpose areinjected to silver and gild from the insideboth the hemispheres, or one may be silvered and the other gilded. Theholes a are closed by rubber corks or with putty or cement, or a rubberjoint-packing, b, Fig. 2, may be used to keep out the water. Thesehemispheres are brought together to embrace the rod F at any desiredposition thereon, and they are held together either by screw-cap G, runover the rod, or by Wrapping the necks O with copper wire, or by acompressedband upon plain or threaded necks.

By making one hemisphere of amber glass and silvering the inner surfaceI have a combination of gold and silver, if I desire so to do.

I may also cast upon the surface of the hemispheres a circumferentialgroove, d, Fig. 1, around which a wire, e, may be drawn and knotted,thereby dispensing with the above described necks.

The advantage of the construction above described lies in the puttingtogether of a globe 5 made up of two hemispheres, whereby the necessityof slipping over the rod is avoided, and whereby one half may be gildedand the other silvered from the inside.

I am aware that a glass-globe ornament for lightning-rods has beensilvered from the inside, as I am also aware of the manufacture ofimitation pearls.

I claim- 1. A ball ornament for lightning-rods and 1 similar devices,consisting of two hollow hemispheres, each having a diameter-face and adiametrically-formed half-tube, E, terminating in semi-cylindricalexternally-threaded ends 0, in combination with the screw-caps G, forclamping the sections together, substantially as described.

2. The hollow hemispheres, each having a diameter-faceprovided with anopening, a sealing-plug therefor, and with a centrallyformed half-tube,E, each hemisphere having external coincident grooves, in combinationwith a rod and a clamping binder, substantially as described, for thepurpose specified.

3. A ball ornament for lightning-rods and similar devices, composed ofseparate hollow glass sections of different colors, havingdiameter-faces bound together and upon the rod by a clamping binder, asshown and described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

ALVIN J. MUNSON.

\Vitnesses:

DAVID It. MUNsoN, \VM. H. BURNETT.

